I kid you not; we may have seen the last of Matt Rempe; and that is a shame. The Maven blames the coach for that. No matter what Peter Laviolette says about The Skating Giraffe needing to brush up on his game In Hartford. That's sheer nonsense for the pure and simple reason that Lavvy never gave Rempe a chance to show his true value in a game. When a coach inserts a player into his lineup and the guy gets three minutes and forty seconds of ice time in one game and seven minutes and thirty-seven seconds in another, what's he supposed to do, get a hat trick? On Saturday night at The Garden, Pistol Pete gave Rempe's replacement, Jonny Brodzinski, 8:11 of playing time and Brod was blanked. Adam Edstrom, the other tall grunt ,was out for 7:31 and got a goose egg. Poor Sammy Carrick must have thought he still was Connor McDavid's stickboy in Edmonton. Lavvy afforded him with 6:22 minutes. Stan Fischler talks about Matt Rempe. Here's why I'm convinced that we've seen the last of Rempe: 1. I believe that the coach doesn't like Rempe, the player, period. But does seem to love Brozinski, the player. 2. I'm convinced that Laviolette resented all the attention both the media and fans heaped on Rempe. As it happened, Matt became an overnight hero faster than the Beatles. 3. I believe that Matt did himself a disservice by inviting all the off-season publicity; starting with boxing lessons, power skating workouts and hanging out with the likes of Chris Kreider who became Rempe's "mentor." None of the above would have mattered if it had been done on the quiet. But when Rempe makes himself THE story after story, I'm sure the high command – which never has to worry about selling tickets – took a dim view of Rempe. And now you know why he's an ex-Ranger who may never escape the Wolf Pack again!
